You guys, I had the best day yesterday. On the surface of it, it didn’t look like it would be much — I had to get up early in the rain and gloom to get the older kids off to school, then spent the day with the two littlest girls, who are in the thick of a love/hate relationship and thus need a lot of hands-on supervision. I have a lot of work to do, and find it nearly impossible to get much done with kids underfoot (not to mention episodes of Parenthood and the fantastic novel that I picked up at the airport Thursday afternoon putting up a stiff competition against hundreds of pages of dry course reading).

I buckled down, though, and sent off an email to someone I had reason to believe might be able to help me find some information I’m needing for my thesis, then set about looking on my own for some clues. Scarcely more than an hour later, I had a long, extremely helpful reply to my email, and it was more than I could ever have hoped for. I thought I might get a book suggestion or two out of the exchange, but instead I got a good list of materials to look at along with an enthusiastic offer for further assistance and advisement. This someone, a priest and theological historian, looks to be an invaluable resource for my work; in addition to suggesting sources, he’s offered to meet with me, suggested a visit to the parish I’m studying, and offered even to serve in a semi-advisory role for my research. I can’t describe how thrilled I was at his response — for a long time I’ve been struggling with how I’ll manage the religious aspects of my work, and this relationship looks to be the answer to my figurative prayers.

I was honestly so giddy yesterday at the possibilities; it suddenly seemed like everything was falling into place and that I just might be able to write the thesis I’ve been dreaming of. The director of my program has said a few times in seminars that occasionally you have days, or even just moments, where “the clouds part and the angels sing” and some vital piece of information is right before you — yesterday was one of those times for me.

Adding to the feel-good-ness of the day was Olof’s fetching pizza from the pizzeria for dinner and the arrival, just two days after I ordered it, of my new Chromebook — a great little laptop that does everything I need it to do and more, without weighing me down nearly so much as my big laptop (it turned out to be a good day for Olof, too, as he inherited said big laptop, which is only a few months old). I had fun getting that set up and playing around a little on it while watching the Braves win a good game and reduce their magic number to one.

As if all that weren’t enough, Jason Heyward, the Braves’ right fielder, who suffered a broken jaw last month after being hit in the face by a pitch, was in the lineup for the first time in weeks, and he did just fine. It was magic, I tell you … every bit of it.